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Irrigators call for fresh look at salinity rules

Irrigators are calling for an overhaul of South Australia's salinity zoning policy and management of site use approval. Read more.

ABC: Clint Jasper

Irrigators are calling for more flexibility in the South Australian Government's salinity zoning policy.

They say the current policy settings are having a detrimental effect on economic growth in the region.

Under the policy, land surrounding the River Murray is divided into zones based on the impact that irrigation will have on salinity in the River.

Irrigators with land on the 'high salinity impact' zone must ensure that any increase in water use is offset by the same amount elsewhere in same zone.

But now many in the industry are calling for the policy to be overhauled, saying it, and the science underpinning it, is outdated.

'Boxed in'

Taylorville irrigator David Liebich purchased a run-down citrus property in 2000, which he converted into a vineyard.

In 2009, South Australia changed the way it managed water rights, by separating the right to take water and the right to use it.

One aspect of this was the creation of Site Use Approval (SUA) - which tells growers they can only use water in a certain way on specific parts of land.

Unbundled: South Australian Water Rights

Water Access Entitlement - this gives an irrigator the right to take water, it is on-going

Water Allocation - how much water an irrigator can take in a given year

Water Resource Works Approval - permission to build things like dams and pumps

Site Use Approval - gives irrigators the permission to use water at a specific location, in a particular way

SUA is key tool in the management of the salinity policy because it ensures the government can manage how much water is used in each salinity zone.

For Mr Liebich, a private irrigator, it means he can't re-plant the citrus trees that were once on the block because he only has enough SUA to grow grapes, and he says he's getting frustrated with the current system.

"For the amount of SUA that's on that property now we're really boxed in to just growing a low water use crop.

"When we purchased it, it was a citrus property, now it's been reduced back, and we've been told by the Department that for us to ever go back to growing citrus now, or even avocados or another higher water use crop, we've actually got to go through the process of purchasing another growers SUA from the same salinity zoning area."

Mr Liebich say that's a problem, because as the industry enters another phase of growth, extra land and SUA is difficult to come by.

"Being isolated here in Taylorville, there aren't a lot of grower's and generally here the properties are on a larger sort-of scale, so, as far as going and buying a neighbour's property, over here, it's a hard task."

Calls for change

The chairwoman of the South Australian Murray Irrigators, Carin Martin, says the salinity policy is dated, because advances in technology mean it's now possible to irrigate high-water use crops efficiently enough to ensure there's no impact on salinity levels.

"To change crops won't have a salinity impact on the river, so even though a citrus or an almond crop uses more water than a grape crop, if you do it efficiently it's not going to have a net impact on the river.

"The site use approval and the salinity credits need to be rehashed and re-looked at to take that fact into consideration."

But Julia Grant, executive director of water and climate change at the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, says the policy must stay in place to ensure drinking water for towns and cities is safe, the environment is healthy and the irrigation industry has a good supply of water to use.

"I think we need to be really careful when we talk about salinity credits what the purpose of them is.

"And that's really to protect the industry and the community for the long term."

Liberal Member for Chaffey Tim Whetstone also believes it's time to look at the policy again.

"I think the high-impact zones are old news, it's old technology, we need to be moving with the times with what we're achieving for today and in the future."

Possible solutions

Creating a market for SUA could be an efficient solution to the debate.

Waterfind CEO Tom Rooney says making SUA trading possible would allow those irrigators with unused SUA to sell or lease it to those that want to expand.

"There needs to be some mechanism, some transfer mechanism to be developed in relation to this so that people for instance might even be able to temporarily transfer their site use because someone might not want to sell their SUA forever, but they might want to lease it for five years or seven years, and someone might be happy to lease that."

But SUA is not a tradable right like water allocation or entitlement is.

"We're really boxed in to just growing a low water use crop"

Taylorville farm David Liebich

Ms Grant says the only way for irrigator to make any increase in their SUA is to buy property from someone in the same zone.

"If someone wants to expand their irrigation development, the only thing that they can really do is to look within that zone at what other irrigators are doing and to see whether if an irrigator is retiring or using some different land use to see whether there's the ability to access the credits that have already apportioned to that zone or to that piece of land."

Same future, different path

The South Australian Government's policy on SUA has the stated aim of maximising 'the potential for further irrigated agriculture development' while also staying in credit on the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's salinity register.

To this end, Ms Grant believes the policy is essential for ensuring healthy futures for communities, the environment and industry.

"Through the Basin Plan, salinity was something South Australia specifically went to fight on.

"So it is something the South Australian government, in conjunction with irrigators have been very strong on."

But many in the irrigation community believe the policy is putting the brakes on development in the region.

"The fact that the SUA and the salinity credits were based on water use compared to the crop you've planted, means that it's holding people in the blocks, and holding people back because the majority are in grapes," says Carin Martin.

Tom Rooney says the opportunity cost of not knowing how much unused SUA is out there is a hidden cost of the policy.

"There's a lot of unused SUA out there, we don't know who owns that, who it is, and a lot of people won't know themselves.

Mr Liebich says he's just keen to get on with running his business.

"You know your goals and where you want to be and you get barriers put up and that's the frustrating part."